Audio samples of all the tracks that are set to appear on Welcome 2 My Nightmare, the new album from Alice Cooper, are available for streaming at this location.

Welcome 2 My Nightmare will be released on September 9th in Europe (on September 12th in the UK and on September 13th in North America) by Universal Music. More details about the album were previously reported over here.

Finnish metallers Stam1na will begin recording their fifth album in September. The producer of the yet-unnamed album will be Joe Barresi, who has previously worked with Tool, Apocalyptica, Queens Of The Stone Age. Stam1na's new album will be released in early 2012.

According to A Sakara Records press release, the idea for the collaboration between Joe Barresi and Stam1na was born more than a year ago, when Stam1na played at Tavastia Club in Helsinki, in February 2010, right after releasing their latest album, Viimeinen Atlantis. At that time Joe was recording the album of Apocalyptica, and Eicca Toppinen (Apocalyptica cellist) brought him to see Stam1na's show and introduced him to the band.

Guitarist / founding member / songwriter Craig Locicero of the Bay Area thrash band Forbidden has issued the following update:

"This is the most painful update I have ever had to write...

Due to family obligations on the part of our longtime drummer, Mark Hernandez, Forbidden is forced to cancel it's tour of Europe and will start to search for an adequate permanent replacement right away. Compounding things is the fact that Mark and I also play in Demonica, who were to open the tour. Unfortunately, at this late date, there is no time nor budget to find a replacement who can handle both bands and our only option right now is to cancel the entire tour.

Forbidden would like to apologize to all of the different promoters, Continental Concerts, the bands Communic and Demonica, our label Nuclear Blast, and most importantly our fans who have been waiting for us to finally make it overseas for our first proper European tour in support of Omega Wave. You all deserve better. This is a collective kick to everyone's stomach and it is very difficult for us to swallow.

"MCM Music & Massacre Records have manufactured / released a "version of III:II."This "version" is more "a compilation" of what I consider to be "random out takes & demo recordings" from 2004... This CD is grossly incomplete & misrepresentative of what "III:II" actually sounds like today. What I can deduce from actually hearing this CD, is the following... MCM and / or Massacre Records decided to hire a few very bad "engineers" to go through hundreds of takes from the recordings I did in Sweden - Spring 2004. These "unknown engineers" chose some takes, tried to put something together and attempted to "mix" something out of it... basically, the recordings from 2004 have evolved into demo recordings, as far as I am concerned. Since those sessions, I have re-recorded almost everything... I have spent more than 7,000 hours recording, choosing final takes, editing, etc, etc... This CD is not "III:II"

It's official, folks! After 18 long years of incarceration, The West Memphis 3 have finally been freed.

For those of you unfamiliar with The West Memphis 3, they are a group of men who were tried and convicted as teenagers on May 5, 1993 for the murder of 3 young boys. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, while his friends Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. were sentenced to life in prison.

Visions Of Atlantis is very proud to announce that our live- and session-guitar-player Cris now joined our ranks as our new fix guitar player from now on! On our Youtube-Channel you can see Cris' great announcement video!

New EP: On the 21st of October Visions Of Atlantis will release brand new material for the world to hear as an EP called Maria Magdalena!

More details on this new release will follow next week, so stay tuned for tons of information and more details.

"Varden Brenne", a brand new song from Norwegian metallers Einherjer, is available for streaming at the Indie Recordings' Facebook page.

"Varden Brenne" comes off the band's forthcoming album, entitled Norrøn, which will be released on September 9 via Indie Recordings. The CD was recorded at Studio Borealis and was produced by Einherjer's Frode Glesnes. Matt Hyde (Slayer, Monster Magnet) mixed the effort. The cover artwork was painted by Renathe H. Bryn.

Germany's symphonic metal act Xandria and Napalm Records are proud to announce the worldwide signing of the female fronted 5-piece to the Austrian-based record company. Xandria's upcoming, fifth full-length studio album is scheduled to be released in early 2012. All of the previous studio albums prominently charted in the German Media Control album charts.